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Self
Self (also known as That Guy, David, Transcendental Will or Transcendental Intelligence) is a mysterious character that's alluded to in the game, but never directly addressed. Self represents the player, or an entity that is extremely close to the player's will. According to the Chronology of Remember 11, Yukidoh Satoru initially referred to this character as a "Transcendental Will". After committing the killing spree at Awazumi Hospital‏‎, Inubushi Keiko asks "Where is Self?" Satoru borrowed her terminology and refers to this character as "Self". Due to his hatred for Self, Satoru also refers to it as "That Guy" to avoid giving it respect with a proper name. Description Self is a being with no concept of time or space. Past, present and future are condensed to a single point, making Self a zero-dimensional creature . It is an absolute will which can subjugate and dominate the wills of humans. Because of this, Self is likened to a god . Any choice it makes can greatly alter the course of reality. In a meta sense, time doesn't exist for Self since the player can access all scenes at their liking, traveling back and forth. The player can subjugate characters by making choices for them. Unconscious Influence Self can indirectly influence characters. The world enforces the player's will in ways even the player may not fully understand. A rather clear showcase of its influence is in when deciding what to eat in , everyone yells in unison whatever the player has chosen. It is possible that Self is the source of many "miracles". An important one is the connection of the satellite phone on the 6th day despite 1 in a million odds . More importantly is how the cabin residents survived the plane crash without a scratch. Self may have intervened to ensure the survival of Kokoro to continue her story. Murder of Yukidoh Sayaka Self's influence is the main driver of the story, namely through the accidental "murder" of Yukidoh Sayaka.The real Satoru hates Self for "killing" Sayaka. The player only sees Sayaka once in the prologue, and never again through the entire story. Since the player doesn't physically kill Sayaka during this scene, she must have experienced a "personality death". This death could have happened in one of two ways: # Self may have mistaken Sayaka for Inubushi Keiko and deleted the Sayaka personality as a result # Self caused Satoru to commit an action that "kills" the Sayaka personality In order to get revenge for his sister, Satoru devised a plan to "kill" Self by trapping it within an infinite loop. Satoru's Transplanted Memories : See also: Pronouns After Enomoto Naoya's body falls off the clock tower while housing the personality of the real Satoru, ORE takes over the body, believing itself to be "Satoru". ORE is a personality created by Self using the information collected from Kokoro's route. After taking over Enomoto's body, the body refers to itself as ORE for the rest of the story. Prior to this, Enomoto's body refers to itself as ore, which is the pronoun the real Yukidoh Satoru uses to refer to himself. ore and ORE are not the same being, which is confirmed by TIPS 93 . Self transplants memories into "Satoru" , but they are incomplete for two reasons. First, Self's knowledge itself is incomplete , limited only to what it has seen from Kokoro's route. Second, Self only transplants memories that it believes the real Satoru should have. That's why he immediately recognizes Mayuzumi, but only feels slight familiarity with Yuni and Yomogi. From early on, ORE feels it is being controlled by another being whose true form it doesn't understand . This being is Self. Information ORE Knows * Satoru's name and age * The current date (Jan 11, 2012) * Layout and structure of SHPIA * The fact that only 3 people should be in SPHIA (Yuni was not originally present) * Inubushi's name after seeing her once * Inubushi's past * The fact he climbed the clock tower * The accident on Mount Akakura and the 4 people there * His hatred of pumpkins . We learned this earlier from Kokoro's chapter * His hatred of things attached to his wrist * His relationship with Mayuzumi , like the duration , going "round and round" with Mayuzumi & "Article 100" of the Japanese Constitution. However, he doesn't know who he felt about her, only making guesses * Details about Yomogi , Utsumi and Kokoro after hearing their names. It is logically possible him to "remember" details about the cabin members if he read about them in the news after the crash was discovered * His "usual glass" in the kitchen on the first day Information ORE Does Not Know * Yomogi or Yuni immediately, though he is familiar with their faces * Kokoro's face from the reflection on the first day * The name "Hotori" * His goal or purpose in life * Anything from before January 11th, including place of birth, his childhood or even his parents * Why he's at SPHIA * Why Utsumi or Yuni are at SPHIA * How he and Mayuzumi started dating and how they broke up * Why he climbed the clock tower and the identity of the shadow Fetal Relations Since a fetus has no concept of boundaries, either in space or time, it is a being that can be considered "zero-dimensional". Self is repeatedly likened to a fetus. In the TIPS regarding "The Meanings Behind the BGM Titles", the song "Self" is described simply with "胎動" meaning "fetal movements" . In , the body of the fetus feels like it is the only existence, absolute and all-powerful. The space-time transfer device is kept in The Third Area with Utsumi while she was carrying twins. Since Self is likely responsible for the operation of the device, its presence in the Third Area symbolizes Self's proximity to a fetus. Metaphors and Analysis Coffee Enomoto explains the function of the space-time transfer device using coffee. He likens Kokoro to coffee with milk and Satoru to black coffee. Enomoto refers to the black coffee as pure, while the milk "contaminates" the drink. Satoru’s consciousness is pure: it is completely occupied by ORE. Kokoro’s consciousness is impure: it is a mix of Self and Kokoro’s influences. Sekijukansei The existence of Kokoro is necessary for Satoru to exist as he does. In the story, this is expressed through the proverb sekijukansei ("red accepts blue entirely"). In order for ORE to exist as Satoru, he needs to know what the player knows about Satoru from the Kokoro route. Without the Kokoro route, ORE in the Satoru route would have no memories at all. Therefore, Satoru can only exist because of Kokoro. In addition to that, Kokoro is associated with red (red text in her endings, red border in the text dialog) while Satoru is blue. Kagome Kagome The last line of the song is "Who's that behind you?", referring to the player who observes the world through the character's eyes. Inubushi Keiko says the song is a metaphor for a baby being born, and the song refers to "kagome", literally meaning "cage woman" or "pregnant woman". Kokoro calls herself "kagome" in her epilogue, likely referring to fact that she housed the infant's personality and "carried" the player's perspective. In Inubushi’s interpretation of Kagome Kagome, the baby died due to a miscarriage. Perhaps this alludes to the death of Self. TIPS The tips that appear during Kokoro's route are all in the third person, whereas the ones in Satoru's route are occasionally in the first person using the pronoun ORE. Self is usually just an observer, while ORE truly believes he is Satoru. Trivia * The Japanese term for "That Guy" (アイツ) is gender-neutral and may refer to a female as equally as a male. A more correct name may be "That Person". The song "Self" plays in only 4 sections, namely: * - Bad end - Utsumi kills Inubushi. Self escapes the infinite loop by remaining in Enomoto's body until he's taken to a mental institute. * - Bad end - Utsumi kills Inubushi. All evidence of life in the cabin is erased and Kokoro is sent back to the crash where she freezes to death. She notices the shadow behind her and is consumed by nothingness. * - Bad end. If Satoru was stabbed by Utsumi while trying to protect Inubushi, Kokoro is sent back to the crash and is consumed by nothingness. * - Kokoro goes over the newspaper again Aside from the last scene, the song "Self" only plays when Kokoro is retroactively not saved from the crash. This perversion of history only happens if Utsumi kills someone. Since Utsumi is the mother of the fetus, perhaps her actions were able to affect Self in a way that nothing else could. Category:Concepts